Method of making expanded metal



YMar ch' so {1926,

T. REDDING ET AL METHOD OF MAKING EXPANDED METAL 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 27, 1922 f 9 w w 55:43 9 4 .w L w f 6716/ gwwemtois .1? w Z2 W Match 30 1926.

E. T. REDDING ET AL I METHOD OF MAKING EXPANDED METAL 4 sneets-shet 2 Filed June 27, 1922 March so ,192'6. 1,578,365

' E. T. REDDING ET AL METHOD OF MAX LING EXPANDED METAL Filed June 27, 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 J70 41 gs;

I 4 I v E l I March 30 1926.

E. T. RE-DDING ET AL METHOD OF MAKING EXP ANDED METAL Filed June 27, 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Mar. 30, 1926.

UNITED STATES EDWARD 2r. BEDDING AND LEONARD w. onoss, or swrssvannfrnmrsrnvama.

EXPANDED METAL oomrannsfa oonrona'rxon assronons TO CONSOLIDATED or PENNSYLVANIA.

. 1,578,365 PATENT OFFICE.

mnrnon OIIMAKIN'G ExPAunEn METAL.

Applioation filed June 27,

To all whom dandy concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARDT. BEDDING, a citizen of the United States, and LEONARD W. Cnoss, a citizen of Great Britain, both residing at Swissvale, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Making Expanded Metal, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a method of mak ing expanded metal fabric. Metal fabric is ordinarily made according to'two processes, one the Golding, which is suitable for heavy stock and in which the diamonds are sheared from the blank by reciprocating die. members, and the other the deployed method, suitable for lighter gauge stock such a as used, for example, for metal lath and the other like meshes, some of which may be of material of heavier weight than ordinarily employed in lath. In this last process the blank is slit in a manner well understood and the metal is expanded by grasping the edges of the slit sheet and pulling them apart, so that the metal 18 deployed to produce the diamonds, the stretching of the strands bein slight as compared with the stretching incident to the Golding 0 process. l Our invention has, inter al1a,lto do primarily withimprovements over the deploying method just described. .Owlng to the fact that the expanded sheet has a width many times greater than tlre wldth of the original blank, it will be'seen that the practical limitations of the process are such that only one sheet of expanded metal can be produced at one time. 1

One of the primary objects of our inven tion is the provision of an improved process which is simple and effective and whereby we may, if desired, produce more than one sheet of expanded fabric at a time, preferably two sheets or multiples thereof. Thus the cost of production both as regards time and labor is greatly reduced.

\Ve accomplish the foregoing, together with such other objects as'lnay herinafter appear or are incidentto our invention, by means of a process which we have diagr'an1. nialically illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a portion of a 1922. Serial No. 571,226.

blank suitable to carrying out our process;

illustrating the making of four sheets; Fig. 7

is a diagrammatic end elevation of a modified way of expanding the sheets; Fig. 8 is a longitudinal section through one form of machine suitable for carrying out the method; Fig ti is a section on the line 9--9' of Fig. 8; g. 10 is a section on the line 1O10 of Fig. 8; Fig. 11 is a side elevation of the machine'on areduced scale; Fig. 12 is anenlarged section on the line 1212 of Fig. 11; and Fig. 13 is an enlarged plan view of the left hand end of Fig. 11.

In carrying out our process We take a rolls of ordinary construction and operation, with the exception that they are designed to slit the blank w1th groups of slits 7two being shown 'in Fig. 1such groups being .75 blank A and pass the same through slitting spaced apart to leave an intermediate selvage 8 as well as the marginal selvages 9 and. 10.

It will be understood that the slits oomposingeach 'group are arranged in staggered relation in the usual manner. After the blank has been slit instead of further upsetting the slit portions as is customary, We pass it through flattening rolls to take out the slight upsetting of the strands incident to the slitting operation, as we find this gives us a greatly improved product for the reason that a maximum measure of strength is retained at the bridges connecting the strands.

We deploy the metal in a direction transverse of the plane of the blank as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2. In carrying out the operation by hand, the selvage 8 is supported and a length of the slit portions to either side thereof is pulled or pushed down in the manner indicated in full lines in Fig. 3. As there shown, the extreme end ortion's of the selvages 9 and 10 have been rought down to a point such that the diamonds a at such end .of the blank have been fully deployed or expanded,.such expansion being progressively less full or complete toward the right.'

Successive lengths of the slit portions are progressively brought down in this manner,

'slighty, preferably progressively," as indias indicated diagrammatically in the dotted lines in Fig. 3, until both portions have been fully deployed.

Where the blank is composed of such stock that the selvage will not accommodateitself to the slight. foreshortening ofthe sheets which takes place underthe expand-. ing process, such selvage can be crimped cated in-exaggerated form at 11 in Fig. 3'. The progressive displacement of the metal lends itself very well to the crimping operation as it will be apparent that it is only as diamonds are full de loyed that crimping may be necessary. This crimping, it will be understood, will only be slight at most as the amount of -foreshortening isrelatively small.

It will be seen that'in the expanding operation the blank assumes a general inverted -V-shape,. with the selvage 8 extending approximately in parallelism with the selvages 9 and 10,- the expanded portions 12' and 13 A which will eventually constitute the sheets pending in the same plane as the stock by pulling the selvages 9 and lO apart, the

whole operation can be carried out in a minimum of space. In this respect it will be noted that at is unnecessar to move the selvages 9 and 10 apart at alfand in point 'of fact such selvages may remain in their original positions as regards distance apart. The process, therefore, is one which also lends itself readily to' machine operation or machine methods.

After the stock has been expanded in the manner described, the selva e 8, which is preferably of double width, is slit, dividing the expanded stock into two separate sheets and leaving edges'of desired width for the two sheets.

In Fig. 6 we have illustrated the carrying out of our process in the roduction of four sheets 14, 15, 16 and 17, t 'e operation being the same in all respects'with the exception that the blank is appro riately slitted.

As an alternative, the operation may be carried out. as indicated in Fig. 7. According to the method there illustrated the expansion is divided and done partly above and partly below the plane of the blank. Thus where four sheets are to be formed, as in Fig. 6 the selvages 8 and 8" will be displacec upwardly and the selvages 9 and 9 and 9 downwardly to progressively expand the slitted portions therebetween, such progressive expansion being carried out as before described.

Referring now to the machine method as illustrated in Figs. 8 to 13, the blank is first passed through the slitting rolls BB which cutthegroups of slits; and then it is passed through "the flattening rolls CC which take out the [upsetting in'cident to the slitting, suchflattening rolls also having, if

desired, 'midd e portions shaped to .crimp the middle se vage, .as indicated more particularly in Figs. 8 and 10. The slitting and the flattening rolls act to pullthe blank forwardly and they,-therefore, also feed the blank to the rest of the machine.

After leaving the slitting rolls, the middle selvage of the blank rides -on to a suppoit ing means such as a bar 19 and the portions ofthe blankto either side thereof pass under guides such as the plates 20-20 which terminate short of the middle selvage and are curved to carry the slit portions downwardly to-the pairs of rolls 2121. A pair of such rolls extendinwardly from each side-from a'suitable frame 2222 in which they have bearings, the rolls terminating short of the middle selvage. The upper rolls enga ethe angularly extending por tions of slit sheets at their inner edges, and

.the'unexpanded portions pass between the rolls. The rolls, therefore, feed the blank and ull it throu h, and in conjunction with the guides expan those portions next to the intermediate selvage. 1

After leaving the rolls 21, the slit portions passunder the guides 22, which are shorter than the guides 20 and serve to direct the unexpande'd portions through the rolls 23, which are shorter than the rolls 21.

The slit portions adjacent the already 'ex anded portions {are 'thus expanded: ad iti-onal guides 24, 25, etc., and pairs of rolls, 32, 33, etc., are provided in the number required for the particular width of sheets being made, it being understood that the rolls are progressively shorter.

The crimping of the ed selvage may be done by the rolls 40,-see igs. 8 and 9; and the middle 'selvage may be split by the cutters 41 -41, also seen in said figures. It will be understood. that the rolls 40-40 and 4 141 serve, along with the other rolls, to pull the blank through the machine.

The method of driving the rolls will be clearly understood from, inspection of Fig. 11. The pairs of rolls have meshing'gears 42 and there are idlers 43, sothat all may be driven from any suitable source of power. Cutters 4141 may be driven from rolls 40- 40 as by chains 44.

We claim:

1. The herein described process of making said plane portions further and further from the edge supported as aforesaid.

2. The herein described process ofunaking deployed expanded metal which I con sists in. slitting a blank, in supporting the slit blank, in expanding the metal in a'direction transverse the plane of the blank, progressively from one edge to the other, and crimping the edges of-the blank, first at the edge where the expansien'begins, and at the other edge as expansion approaches it.

7 slitting. the blank with two groups of slits with selva e at the edge and intermediate the groups, an in deploying the slit portions in a direction transverse the plane of the blank so that in the resultant product the intermediate selva-ge will lie in a plane removed from theplane of the blank with the expanded portions extending angularly there- ,from to the edge selvage in general V-shape,

and then in separating the sheets.

1 5". The hereindescribed process of making -a plurality of sheets of deployed metal fabme, from a single blank WlllChconsists in slitting the vblank with two groups of slits witlr selvage at the edge and intermediat the groups, and in deploying the slit portions in a direction transverse the plane of the blank so that in the resultant product the intermediate selvage willlie in a plane removed from the plane of the blank with the expanded portions extending angularlytherefrom to the edge selvage in general V- shape and then in se arating the sheets by splitting theinterme iate selvage.

In testimony whereof,- we have hereunto signed our names. a v v EDWARD T.- BEDDING.

LEONARD w. CROSS. 

